Jersey writing on the Southbank

Friday 14 November 2014

People in London got to hear what it was like for five local writers growing up in Jersey when their work showcased at the Southbank Centre.

Their plays were part of the Paines Plough’s “Come to Where I’m From” installation at the Festival Village last month.

The new-writing theatre company spent five years delving into the origins of a hundred playwrights all over the UK including the Island’s Ben Evans, Leon Fleming, Martha MacDonald, Hannah Patterson and Colin Scott.

Some of the company’s writers-in-residence came to the Island back in 2011 to mentor the group and spent a week working with them at Eulah Country House while they produced monologues about where they grew up.

A huge interactive map of the UK was set up so that members of the public could plug in to the plays from all over the British Isles and they were invited to write what reminds them of home on luggage tags and on the walls. Jersey’s Martha MacDonald was one of just a few picked to read her play in front of an audience in Festival Village.

Martha said: “I felt very honoured to be working alongside Paines Plough and their incredibly talented writers-in-residence back in 2011. I’m so grateful both to Paines Plough, and, of course, to the Jersey Arts Trust for giving me the opportunity to access the modern playwrighting world so early on in my life. Now I am even more pleased to have seen this project through to its wonderful finale at the Southbank Centre during the London Literature Festival this October.

"Festival Village is a beautiful space, and made even more so by the embellishments carefully crafted by the company. It truly was a celebration of one’s home, no matter how you may feel about it!

"This project really pays tribute to British playwrights and the heritage that has shaped them. I think it’s so important to encourage writing on this kind of national platform, and I’m proud to have represented the creative culture that we have here in Jersey.”

An app featuring all of the playwright’s contributions will soon be available to download for free on the App Store. (Picture courtesy of Richard Davenport of the “Come to Where I’m From” installation at the Southbank Centre.)